Japanese, Thai stocks rise as Asia rebounds

V.Phani Kumar

An earlier version misstated the extent of the Nikkei Stock Average’s fall from its peak on May 23. The corrected version of the report follows.

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Asian stocks rebounded Friday as eased worries about the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy and an improvement in U.S. economic data sparked relief buying across the region, with Japanese and Southeast Asian equities witnessing strong gains.

Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average
NIK, -1.36%
climbed 1.9%, taking back some ground after the previous day’s 6.4% plunge, even as the dollar
USDJPY, -0.23%
stayed under the ¥95 handle for most of the session after rising well above that level earlier in the day.

At Friday’s close, the Nikkei Average was 20.4% lower than its peak on May 23, ending for a second straight day in a so-called bear-market, although it emerged from that territory earlier in the day. A bear market is generally defined as a price decline of 20% or more within a two-month period.

Reuters

Japan and Philippine stocks bounce off their heavy losses from Thursday.

“We are stuck in a ‘Goldilocks world’ as the continued seesawing between concerns about market-related policy and the real U.S. economy [are] likely to persist for the remainder of the year,” said Perpetual head of investment market research Matthew Sherwood.

“The key to market trends would be [U.S.] economic data not coming in super-hot or super-cold. Instead, it needs to be middle-ground, which enables earnings growth to persist without concerning the hawks in the U.S. Fed,” Perpetual’s Sherwood said.

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